Editing Free Bird (section)

== Origins ==
According to guitarist [[Gary Rossington]], for two years after [[Allen Collins]] wrote the initial chords, vocalist [[Ronnie Van Zant]] insisted that there were too many for him to create a melody in the belief that the melody needed to change alongside the chords. After Collins played the unused sequence at rehearsal one day, Van Zant asked him to repeat it, then wrote out the melody and lyrics in three or four minutes. The guitar solos that finish the song were added originally to give Van Zant a chance to rest, as the band was playing several sets per night at clubs at the time. Soon afterward, the band learned piano-playing roadie [[Billy Powell]] had written an introduction to the song; upon hearing it, they included it as the finishing touch and had him formally join as their keyboardist.

In subsequent interviews, Gary Rossington stated that the record company executives initially felt the song was too long and "wouldn't get any airplay", and that it "needed to be shortened to 3 or 3-1/2 minutes for radio". Also, the band was told, "Why would you ruin a pretty song like that with a wild "LSD-type" ending?" Rossington stated that the band refused to change the length of the song and that "we weren't changing our ways, hell no".

[[Allen Collins]]'s girlfriend, Kathy, whom he later married, asked him, "If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?" Collins noted the question and it eventually became the opening line of "Free Bird." Also, in an interview filmed during a fishing outing on a boat with Gary Rossington, an interviewer asked Ronnie Van Zant what the song meant. Van Zant replied that in essence, that the song is "what it means to be free, in that a bird can fly wherever he wants to go." He further stated that "everyone wants to be free...that's what this country's all about."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1703|title=Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd Songfacts|publisher=Songfacts.com|access-date=March 7, 2012}}</ref>

The song is dedicated to the memory of [[Duane Allman]] by the band in their live shows.<ref>{{cite web|last=Paul|first=Alan|title=Prime Cuts: Lynyrd Skynyrd|publisher=Guitar World|date=March 4, 2009|url=http://www.guitarworld.com/prime-cuts-lynyrd-skynyrd|access-date=September 9, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515175017/http://www.guitarworld.com/prime-cuts-lynyrd-skynyrd|archive-date=May 15, 2013}}</ref> During their 1975 performance on ''[[The Old Grey Whistle Test]]'', Van Zant dedicated the song to both Allman and [[Berry Oakley]], commenting, "they're both free birds".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqCoeZ8uybQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/vqCoeZ8uybQ |archive-date=2021-12-22 |url-status=live|title=Lynyrd Skynyrd-Free Bird Live Old Grey Whistle Test 1975|date=May 27, 2013 |publisher=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|title=The Old Grey Whistle Test|medium=DVD|publisher=Warner Home Video|year=2003}}</ref>

During the 1987–1988 [[Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour]], the band played "Free Bird" as an instrumental. [[Johnny Van Zant]] first sang the song on its [[Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991 Tour]] in [[Baton Rouge]], where the band had been headed in 1977 when several members were killed in a plane crash.